Edelstein: Operation Protective Edge must continue until calm and quiet are brought to whole country.

Five hundred children from the South visited the Knesset on Sunday, where they met Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein and Deputy Education Minister Avi Wortzman.

“The joyful atmosphere here speaks for itself. The children are smiling and feel at ease and calm in the Knesset,” Edelstein said.

The Knesset hosted activities for the children from the Sdot Negev region, Ofakim, Kiryat Malachi, Even Shmuel, Moshav Eitan and Kibbutz Sa’ad, which included a magic show, a play, a tour of the Knesset and more. There will be three days of activities for children in the Knesset this week.

In response to questions from adults present about how long Operation Protective Edge will continue, Edelstein said “there’s no problem to finish the operation today, but then we’ll have another round of fighting in a few months.

“We can’t go back to the ‘understandings’ of Operation Pillar of Defense or others in the past,” the Knesset Speaker added. “This time we need to be sure the operation will bring quiet and calm throughout Israel.”

Wortzman, who lives in Beersheba, told the children they are his neighbors.

“I and my children also sat in bomb shelters and it was uncomfortable,” he said. “The ninth anniversary of the disengagement [from Gaza] is soon, and then, people said the disengagement would bring quiet. Since then, thousands of missiles were shot at Israel.”

Wortzman expressed hope “the IDF will win the campaign so the children of the South and all of Israel will never have to suffer again.”